Abusing Power
by morpherkidvb
Summary: What lengths will an AU Jake go to to restore his upper hand and ultamate power as leader of the Animorphs? Not as bad as it sounds, written to make you think.
1. Questioning and leaving...

JAKE  
  
"So Jake, what's today's mission?" Rachel asked me in a warning tone. I knew why she was angry. Recently, Ax had challenged my authority as leader, so I had suspended him from battle for a month. When he argued, I had ordered Tobias to keep an eye on him and if does anything out of the ordinary, to morph and forcibly bring him to me. He also refused, so I grabbed him and yelled at him. He flew away and wasn't seen again. By me anyway. So Rachel was lashing out at me for enforcing my authority.  
  
"Rachel, you know what I did was right!" I jumped up. "Say it!"  
  
She backed off. "Jake, stop! Think about it!"  
  
"If you're not going to accept me as leader, you should get out! Out!"  
  
"No, Jake! I'll stay! It's alright!"  
  
"No, I don't think it is. See, if you really wanted to win this war, you and the rest would follow orders! I can do this myself! Get out of my sight! All of you!"  
  
Cassie walked up to me. "I'm sorry Jake. Goodbye."  
  
I said nothing. I was lost to my thoughts of singled out glory. I had the blue box. I could create new fighters who would only obey me. And if they deviated. well, they were expendable. I would have an empire under my command. I would not beat the Yeerks, I would conquer them! They would let go of their hosts and give me their ships! I would be ruler of the universe! That'd show Rachel and the others. Yeah, I'd get them all right. They'll see. I walked home.  
  
RACHEL  
  
What could I have done? Without Jake, we were just a bunch of kids. Even Marco was discouraged, and he's usually really get-up-and-go, you know? Tobias called a makeshift meeting at Ax's scoop. I walked there, too messed- up to fly. Well, when I got to the meeting, Tobias said that we should assume that Jake was listening, so to morph and use private thought-speak. That scared me. That was what we did with David, and he, you know. Was Jake going to be our enemy? I relayed this thought to Tobias, who just said hmm and ruffled his feathers. Marco in osprey morph asked, So what about Jake? We haven't seen him for 2 days, and that's a lot for him. I think we should try to find him.   
  
Cassie cut in. That's going to be risky, Marco.   
  
He's a member of our team, Cassie.   
  
Ax cut in. Cassie, there is a possibility that Prince, um, former Prince Jake, has taken the Escafil Device. Have you checked the hiding place?   
  
No, but I will. Hang on  
  
Cassie demorphed and unscrewed the pipe. The blue box was gone. 


	2. Searching and falling...

JAKE  
  
Fools. Did they really think I would have left without the blue box? Sometimes those characters are so illogical. I realized something as I was lying in bed yesterday; I need to act fast. The others, especially Marco, will want to get me back on their side. So tomorrow I will make the first new Morpher.  
  
TOBIAS  
  
I flew over the school, catching an updraft and riding it to the top. Rachel was to my left, Ax to my right.  
  
Ok, Rachel, you take his house, and Ax, you cover the major pool entrances. I'll take the school.   
  
The others veered off without a word. I flew on, getting altitude by clipping my wings up. As the roof of the school approached, I spotted a reptilian figure being followed by a couple of guys from school. They were tenth graders, bigger than I was. Funny, tenth graders used to freak me out. The leading one was carrying…  
  
The blue box!  
  
Jake!  
  
And then I dropped like a stone, seeing no more.  
  
RACHEL  
  
His house was deserted. The cars were in the driveway, except for Jake's dad's Lexus, which was in the garage. But no one was home. And Jake lives in the middle of a large residential section, so there wasn't exactly anywhere to go on a walk to.  
  
Something was up.  
  
Tom wasn't home either, so I took his first story window and broke it with a rock. I felt kinda bad afterwards, so I left a couple of bills on the sill.  
  
I peeked around, doing an extensive search like Tobias had told me to. Tobias… I wondered where he was? And how was Ax doing? And what about Marco…  
  
Smash!  
  
A force that could have knocked the house down echoed through the room!  
  
Hork-Bajir!  
  
Geez, I hated those things.  
  
But I couldn't morph!  
  
I jumped out the window and ran for my like, Dracons following me as ran to nowhere…  
  
Tsewww!  
  
A hole burned through my skin, ripping at the muscle and tearing the flesh.  
  
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!"  
  
And the blackness swirled around me, and finally blanketed me with a dark soothing rest…  
  
AX  
  
Tom!  
  
I beat my wings to keep myself from falling out of the sky.  
  
Tom!  
  
He shouldn't be here!  
  
There was a Sharing meeting right now!  
  
I pondered, then found a Dumpster to land by and did a quick demorph and then remorph to seagull. Seagulls are useful all purpose morphs, and are all over this area, so I could follow Tom safely.  
  
He crossed the street from the mall, heading to the motion picture theater with 'stunning Technicolor picture'. He slipped in after conversing with an obvious controller at the ticket stand here I could not follow in seagull.  
  
The disadvantage to using animal morphs is that they are quite conspicuous in places like movie theaters.  
  
Once I had assumed my human form I walked up to the controllers ticket stand and asked for a ticket. Luckily, I had integrated human money into my morph, and so was able to pay. But when I handed the man my paper, he asked me to come around to a side door to discuss something. He said I had won a contest of some sort.  
  
Humans rarely turn down opportunity like this one was, so I followed the man in to a small closet.  
  
"Sweet dreams, Andalite!"  
  
And a peace enveloped me and I fell…  
  
Asleep… 


	3. Thinking and joining...

Chapter 3  
  
Ryan  
  
Ok, so this guy comes up to me with a box at lunch today, right? It was this blue thing, with metallic swirls in it and little writings on the side. I didn't understand what it was, so I asked the guy and he's like, " meet me after school and I'll show you. Dumpster in the park, 3:00. " And I'm kinda weirded out 'cause, ya know, the Dumpster? That's pretty freaky, but I want to know what this strange box thing is doing in the middle of school, and what it does.  
  
So anyway, I go to the park, and the guy's not there. And I look around and wait for about five minutes and turn to leave when I hear this voice in my head. It sounds like the guy, but maybe I'm just crazy, so I keep on walking. And then I hear it again, calling my name sorta, but there's no sound. I look around again and all I see are these little fuzzy animals running around. I hear the noise again and freeze. Three times, man, I'm either crazy or it's real. Chances are I'm just crazy, but I stop and listen anyway. Just then the guy comes out of the bushes. Just pops out like a cartoon or something. He says in a real smooth voice, " Hello, Ryan. I assume, then, that you accepted my offer. Come here for a sec and let me tell you a little story. "  
  
I can tell he's talking down to me, saying things in a soft tone so that I can understand. I hate it when people do that- I can understand them fine. I'm probably a lot smarter than most people realize, I just don't say much most of the time. He's also using big words to show off his vocabulary, trying to make it real obvious that he's the brain of the operation, whatever strange and twisted operation this happens to be. He sits down, and for the first time I notice he's wearing skintight clothes. Like Spandex. A Speedo. I sit down across from Speedo Boy and he begins to talk.  
  
"My name is Jake." He says, in a cool but obviously rehearsed fashion. I cock an eyebrow, but Speedo Boy- Jake- doesn't notice.  
  
He tells me a story about aliens and light rays and slugs and mutations and by the time he tells me about kids trying to fight aliens I stand up. I look him square in the eye, then look past him. I can't seem to look at him straight- it's like he has this. vibe that pushes people away. He sees that I have stopped listening and looks up, angry to be interrupted.  
  
"Sit down!" he says, and the way he says it I almost do. It scares me a bit, that he has so much control over me, so I change gears and hold my ground.  
  
" This has gotta be some kinda joke, man. Where'd you hear this, the National Enquirer? "  
  
He jumps up, all defensive like, but it seems he has planned for this too.  
  
"You don't believe me? Watch this, then decide whether it's real of not. Yeah, watch real carefully. You won't want to miss it."  
  
And he begins to change.  
  
His face ripples in orange, then black stripes are slapped on like an after- thought. His already huge hands grow and grow and grow, forcing him down on all fours. I'm yelling by this point, yelling and hoping no one hears, because if someone sees this I'm so totally dead, and Jake talks to me again. Ryan! Ryan, shut up, you wanna get the cops down here? I don't, so I shut up. I realize it must have been him calling me, but I don't have time to think because suddenly a striped tail splurts out, missing my leg by an inch. I look over to where Jake was standing, and there's a tiger.  
  
No lies. I'm not kidding, I couldn't make up a story this wild if I wanted to. The kid named Jake turned into a full-grown tiger.  
  
And I saw the entire thing.  
  
I'm thinking it's not real, I'm on drugs, it's a dream. But you see, if it's not real, I'm hallucinating. And that means places like asylums and jail, people who think they saw the end of the world or a murder. Or a guy turning into a tiger. Maybe I am crazy. Maybe I'm already there, in the nuthouse, and I don't know it. But I still watch the tiger, Jake, whatever it is, and listen. Because what if it is real?  
  
So, now do you believe, Ryan? Huh? He uses my name, speaking directly to, demanding my full attention.  
  
" I dunno, " I try to say, but it comes out as more like a whimper. Then, something snaps inside me.  
  
" What do you want from me?! What did I ever do?! " I assume a defensive stance, ready to fight if necessary. Maybe he's the insano, and he's gonna attack me.  
  
But Jake stays cool. He says, " We need your help. The resistance group has fallen apart. I have observed you, and I have decided you could be a worthy member of the new resistance. We will conquer the Yeerk menace, and bring back the old resistance! We will be rulers, winners. Never again will the Yeerks enslave another human! "  
  
He is practically shouting the words by the time he finishes his speech, yelling like the videos of the Nazis in History class. Like Hitler. Like a dictator.  
  
But I see that he is on the right side, the freedom side. I know the Yeerks are the bad guys, and if we use radical power against radical power.  
  
We could win.  
  
This kid, and the rest of us, could save the world.  
  
It sounds weak, doesn't it? Cliché, you know? Saving the world. Ha.  
  
But the way he says it, the way the heat radiates from his body, you can feel the truth of his words, that he truly believes in his cause.  
  
I answer.  
  
"Ok. " I say. "Tell me what to do. " 


End file.
